


Piece by Piece

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-09
Updated: 2009-11-09
Packaged: 2019-05-30 10:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15094427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Josh and Donna face the trials and tribulations of aging. This is an angst heavy story.





	Piece by Piece

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

Title: Piece by Piece

Timeline: Many, many years post series!! Josh and Donna are retired from their jobs etc

Rating: PG but angst galore. If you want happy, romantic fluff you won’t find it here. I guess the ending could be called bitter sweet? I know some people don’t like these kinds of stories as they can be too brutally true to life. Sadly, this story is many couple’s reality.

Disclaimers: Characters etc are the property of Sorkin et al! The words are mine. Please do not copy, store or change text without permission of the author. 

Feedback: Please! 

 

2030

Josh was turning 70 and despite his protestations that he didn’t want a birthday party, Donna had spun it as a get together with close family and friends. Guests were due to arrive by 7:00pm. Donna was her efficient self. Caterers had delivered all the food, the drinks were chilling in the tubs of ice, the house was decorated and she was taking the time for a little pampering. Looking in the mirror, she saw what no woman liked seeing. Her ash blonde hair was styled into a chin length cut and signs of aging were in evidence around her eyes and mouth. Skin sagged where once it had been taut. Sighing, she didn’t hear Josh come up behind her. He wrapped both arms around her waist and kissed her shoulder. He never tired of tasting her. He knew she saw only the changes to her body but he still saw the beautiful young woman who had walked into his office and stolen his heart all those years ago.

Josh continued to nibble at her neck. “We don’t have time for this Josh,” Donna tried to talk calmly but he knew her well enough to notice the ever so slight change in her breathing.

“Let’s be late,” he murmured against her skin. He could think of no better way to celebrate his birthday than by leisurely making love to his wife. Donna turned in his arms and as he pressed her up against the bathroom sink, she attached her lips to his in a searing kiss that promised much. They may be classified as ‘seniors’ but their sex life had barely diminished. Maybe the intensity and frequency wasn’t what it once was but they enjoyed a fulfilling sex life that left couples many years younger envious.

Josh returned the kiss with enthusiasm and just as he heard Donna moan, he also felt her push away. Cupping his face in her hands, she looked him in the eyes and said, “Later.”

Sighing, Josh knew she was right. The first guests were due to arrive soon. As he moved away the phone rang. 

“Get that will you?” Donna called out. She heard Josh’s voice but couldn’t discern the words until he rushed into the bedroom.

“That was the Ogilvy bakery. We forgot to pick up the cake.”

Donna glared at him and said, “I’m sorry. Who forgot?”

“Me. I forgot,” he confessed. “Sorry. There has just been so much going on and it went right out of my mind. I’ll drive over and pick it up now. Where are my car keys?”

“Where did you leave them?”

“If I knew that I wouldn’t be asking, would I?” he said, sounding exasperated.

Donna moved through the room and produced the keys from the bowl on the dresser.

“Here you go. Drive carefully.”

“Why did you put them there?” he muttered as he went out the door.

Josh returned with the cake. The party went off without a hitch. It was great to spend time with old friends and reminisce about the ‘old days’. Sam, Toby, CJ, Danny and Charlie had all come to town to help celebrate. Donna watched them all fondly and sighed. Yes, life was good.

2032 Josh’s 72nd birthday.

“Hey, is today the day that Noah is working late?” Josh asked Donna. Their son was due to visit today to help celebrate Josh’s birthday. But he had also been working long hours in recent days. 

Donna sighed. This wasn’t the first time Josh had asked this question. She knew he was anxious to see Noah but honestly!

“No, he is finishing work, picking up take out and he’ll be here by 6pm,” Donna reassured him as she put the finishing touches to his birthday cake.

They were both so proud of their only child. He had recently graduated from college and had found a position working at the DC branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. He seemed to have inherited the best traits of his parents and even though he no longer lived with them, he visited regularly. They were happy to see him fulfilling the natural order and carving out his place in the world but they still missed his constant presence in their lives.

“So we have some time until he is due?” Josh asked, smiling at her.

“We do.” Donna put the cake in the fridge and turned to Josh. Putting her arms around his neck, she leant in and whispered “Let’s get out the birthday suits!”

Josh groaned at the bad pun but not at the sentiment. Leading her by the hand he led her to the bedroom. Wild sex on the kitchen floor was a bit beyond him these days. Softer surfaces didn’t make his arthritis flare up!

“Happy birthday Joshua,” Donna’s eyes locked with his before she began feathering kisses on his face and neck. For the next hour Josh enjoyed the familiarity of his wife’s body, knowing just what he could do to elicit the best response. For Donna, it proved yet again how perfectly their bodies came together to give each other maximum pleasure.

After an opportunity to catch their breath, each of them showered and changed and was waiting for Noah’s arrival. The evening passed in laughter and story telling.  
As the evening drew to a close Josh said “Noah, did you ever hear the story about your mother saving Social Security?” Donna tried to ignore the fact this was the third time that night, he told this story.

Two Years later

It was becoming hard to get Josh to go out these days. But each day, to appease Donna, he went for a walk. Donna encouraged this as not only a means of keeping fit but as a way for him to feel a part of his local community. Today though, he’d been gone quite a while. Eventually Donna heard the front door slam.

“Josh, is everything okay? You were gone much longer than usual.” She couldn’t help but notice he seemed quite pale. 

He sat on the sofa and dropped his head into his hands. “I got lost, Donna. I couldn’t find the right street to take to get me home.” He looked at her with such a bleak look on his face, she was heartbroken. Dropping down next to him, she took his hand.

“But you DID get home. Tell me what happened.”

“I don’t know. One minute I was walking the path I take everyday and the next minute I didn’t know where I was. I kept on walking until eventually I saw a landmark I knew and I walked home.” Josh slammed his other hand hard against the arm rest of the sofa. “Dammit Donna, what happened?”

She sighed. As much as they were both trying to ignore it, the reality was that Josh’s memory was slipping. His communication was also suffering. He found it hard to use the correct word. Sometimes he made words up, like the day he asked for his “rain stick” and eventually she worked out he meant his umbrella. Using ‘thing’ had been such a common expression back in the day but Donna noticed he was now using it more and more often when he became frustrated at not being able to choose the right word.

Frustration was now a routine part of their day. For Josh, the emotion he felt when he couldn’t express himself as articulately as usual was intense. Anger was the usual emotion but he would also shut himself off for a few hours. Donna would often find him brooding in his study. She too, felt despair. Her brilliant, articulate, argumentative man was no longer at his best. She hated to see him age like this.

Donna had made excuses every time she found the coffee in the oven, his glasses in the vegetable crisper and his clean clothes put away in the linen closet. But yesterday when he’d called her CJ and then had taken a moment to snap back, that had frightened her. 

Taking a deep breath, she squeezed his hand. “Josh, I think you should get checked out by a doctor. This could be nothing or it could be a sign that something is wrong. Maybe you had a mini stroke? Anyway, how about I make an appointment?”

Josh looked at her. He saw the concern written all over her face and the fearful look in her eyes. If he’d been reluctant to visit a doctor, seeing the fear on his wife’s face sealed the deal. He couldn’t stand to see her in distress.

The doctor’s appointment a week later didn’t give good news. A battery of tests gave them the answer they feared. Although a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s couldn’t be confirmed except via autopsy, the indicators were that Josh was in the early stages. Medications were available to delay the increase in severity of symptoms but both Josh and Donna knew what lay ahead.

Three years later  
3 years of caring for Josh at home and witnessing his struggle to maintain his link to the present day had taken its toll on both Josh and Donna. The past years had been filled with anger, frustration and violent verbal outburst from both. This had been tempered with the joyful life experiences of their son marrying and the birth of a granddaughter. But day by day Josh was slipping away and Donna cried many tears. 

For awhile life continued the way to which they’d become accustomed. But gradually Donna noticed Josh spent more and more time in reminisces and then it seemed he’d moved back in time. He was back in the White House. Sometimes working as Santos’ CoS and other times reliving the Bartlet years. Selfishly, Donna was happier when he was living in the Santos world because it at least meant Josh was aware of their relationship. Whenever he slipped in to the Bartlet presidency, he forgot that he and Donna were married. That cut her to the quick as she felt their life together had been erased from his memory. But then he would return to her and their life and all would be well. 

Sadly, deterioration was inevitable and Donna was becoming aware it was dangerous to have him at home. On more than one occasion Josh had wandered. Luckily, he was well known in the area and someone usually drove him home. But Donna lived in fear of him boarding a bus and ending up miles from home. Eventually, she convinced him to wear a GPS- like monitor so if he did wander, he could be found before he came to any harm.

He’d also become very restless at night. He often got up, wandered the house or started to cook himself breakfast at 3:00am.

It had come time to look at their options and with a heavy heart, Donna phoned Noah. This was a decision she couldn’t make by herself.

2040

Every day Donna visited Josh. It cut her to the quick to see the vacant look in his eyes tempered with a sense of struggling to cut though the fog and understand what was going on around him. She read him the papers and watched political shows with him, giving commentary as to what was transpiring on the Hill and in the White House. She even sat through some Mets games with him, hoping that he had some understanding of what was happening.

He was always glad to see her and would become agitated when it was time for her to go home. At first he couldn’t remember why she was leaving him there, why he wasn’t going home with her. Donna would go home in tears aware that Josh felt she was abandoning him. Soon that turned into him whining,” Where have you been? You never come to see me anymore?” But the time came when she would have been glad to hear any of this. The disease slowly robbed him of speech until he was reduced to communicating one or two words at a time. 

Then the day came when the blank look in Josh’s eyes extended further and he no longer recognised her. Donna went home and cried for a week. She’d lost him but he was still here. She agreed with the doctors who said Alzheimer’s was harder on the family as the sufferer was unaware of what they were unable to remember. But for Donna, it was a living hell.

Still, she continued to visit him. Each day, she suffered the anguish of being ‘introduced’ to her husband. Josh continued to slip away. He was now being fed by tubes as the action of eating was one of the many things he could no longer recall how to do. The doctor called her into his office one morning on her way to Josh’s room.

“Mrs Lyman, your husband has developed pneumonia. I don’t think he is strong enough to fight it.” Donna almost felt relief and then she felt guilty.

“He’s a fighter and miracles can happen but I don’t hold out much hope. I’d prepare yourself for the worst,” he said compassionately.

Donna sat by his side for 2 days, sleeping in a chair at night. It reminded her of another time, long ago, when she did the same. She recalled too, the time he had sat by her side in Germany. The Doctor examined Josh and said it wouldn’t be long now. As she ran her hand through his hair and leaned into kiss him, Josh suddenly drew in a noisy breath and opened his eyes. His brown eyes locked with her blue ones. The miracle the doctor spoke of occurred. 

“Donna,” he said softly and smiled a smile she hadn’t seen in years and thought she would only ever see again in photos. “Love you,” he whispered and with that he slipped away.


End file.
